Boulevard, a downtown-based business management platform for appointment-based, beauty and self-care shops, announced last week that it had raised $70 million in Series C funding led by Point72 Private Investments, with participation from Toba Capital, Index Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, BoxGroup and VMG Partners. In conjunction with the investment, Eddie Kang, a partner at Point72 Private Investments, joins Boulevard’s board of directors.
The funding will enable Boulevard to increase its investment in engineering and development, accelerate the delivery of new platform capabilities, and drive expansion into new self-care verticals.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to work with Eddie and the team at Point72 Private Investments,” said Matt Danna, co-founder and chief executive of Boulevard, in a statement. “With today’s news, we’ve not only raised capital that will enable us to grow our product and engineering teams, enhance our platform and fuel multi-dimensional expansion into new segments and verticals, but we’ve also added a partner that deeply understands our industry and our business.”
The company’s products include self-booking, client management and scheduling services. Last July, Boulevard also introduced “Boulevard Duo,” a card reader that accepts contactless payment methods.
The funding comes at a time when the self-care industry is evolving in the post-pandemic world. As self-care continues to become more deeply entrenched as an essential part of daily life, the revenue of the personal care and beauty market — which includes hair salons, nail salons, barbershops, face and skin care, and other beauty services — has amounted to $85 billion this year, according to Statista. The market is expected to increase annually by 3.9%.
“As the self-care industry continues to grow, so too will the role technology plays in creating the seamless experiences that keep clients coming back,” Kang said in a release. “Not only has Boulevard designed an elegant and visionary platform that fills a pressing need in a fast-growing industry, but they’ve also built a thoughtful, customer-centric culture validated through world-class retention. We’re excited to support the Boulevard team as they continue to grow.”
The company achieved record growth last year, more than tripling the size of its customer base and posting a 188% year-over-year increase in annual revenue. The company also added full payment-facilitation capabilities to the appointment scheduling and messaging functionality for which it’s known. Boulevard now processes more than $1 billion in payments annually, and more than 25,000 professionals in 2,000 salons and spas across the nation rely on its platform to work with their clients on online appointment scheduling, messaging and payments.
